Ranking of the strength of China's first-tier tire companies

At the beginning of 2025, orders for Chinese tire companies are still setting new highs. More and more tire monomer factories can achieve a daily output of more than 50,000 semi-steel tires alone.

China's first-tier tire companies are taking advantage of the opportunity of China's tires selling well around the world to strive to enter the world's first-tier! And today we will see which company has more strength to enter the "competitive city" of the world's first-tier.

Ranking by scale, Zhongce is still the first

Based on the ranking of the top 75 global tires in 2024, tire companies with annual sales of more than US$1.5 billion will be listed as the Chinese tire companies with the most potential to enter the first-tier of global tires.

According to the sales data of the top 75 global tire companies in 2024, the sales of these four major tire companies are US$4.772 billion (RMB 35 billion), US$3.602 billion (RMB 26.4 billion), US$3.335 billion (RMB 24.5 billion) and US$2.843 billion (RMB 20.8 billion).

Among them, Zhongce Rubber has been ranked first in the domestic tire company rankings for 16 consecutive years. The sales gap between it and the world's first-tier "goalkeeper" - Sumitomo Rubber, which ranks fifth, has narrowed from US$2.636 billion in the previous year to US$2.393 billion (RMB 17.5 billion).

In 2024, Sailun Tire ranked among the top ten in the world for the first time, and its sales growth in 2023 exceeded 9%, showing strong sales strength and sales growth potential.

Thanks to the continued expansion of China's tire share in the world in 2024, the strength of China's first-tier tires continues to increase. In just six months of 2024, Zhongce Rubber's turnover exceeded RMB 18.5 billion.

In the first half of 2024, Zhongce Rubber not only continued to lead in revenue, but its main business revenue continued to grow by 7% over the same period last year. The sales gap between Zhongce Rubber and the first-tier goalkeeper - Sumitomo Rubber continues to narrow.

Sailun Tire and Linglong Tire also saw sales growth of 30.29% and 12.37% respectively in the first half of 2024. Although Cheng Shin Rubber's revenue slightly decreased in the first half of 2024, its profitability has been significantly improved.

Profitability ranking, Sailun demonstrates strength
"Tonnage determines status, and profit margin determines the future." The tire business can only develop more if it is more profitable. Comparing the profit margins, it can be found that the tire companies in the first echelon of China not only lead the industry in sales, but also approach the global head in terms of product premium ability.

However, overall, the profit margins of tire companies in the first echelon are generally above 22%. The strong premium ability is due to the continuous upgrading of the company's product portfolio. It can be seen that the head tire companies have layouts in almost all market segments, and the sales share of different products is also more "rational".

The sales share of TBR and PCR of the head tire companies is relatively balanced, basically around 40%; although OTR accounts for about 10%, it has become an important support for the profits of the head tire companies due to the higher price of special tires and more profits.

This is not an unfounded guess. In 2024, the leading foreign-funded tire companies suffered a 5% decline in sales in the specialty tire market, which also affected their profits in the same period.

Therefore, if sales and profits want to maintain steady growth, tire products must keep up. And this "keeping up" not only refers to product types, but also means strong product supply capabilities. After all, in the tire industry, "tonnage determines status" is a hard truth!

Supply capacity ranking, the first echelon leads the industry
Statistics show that the four companies in the first echelon of Chinese tires have an annual production capacity of more than 130 million. Zhongce's ability to sit firmly on the throne of the first revenue in China's tire industry is directly related to its huge production capacity.

Since 2022, Zhongce Rubber has accelerated the expansion of its production capacity boundaries, and acquisitions and global capacity expansion have been carried out simultaneously to further enhance its product supply capabilities.

Among them, the 25 million high-performance semi-steel radial tire project located in Jintan Economic Development Zone with an investment of 5.422 billion yuan has become a key project in the automobile and parts category in Jiangsu Province in 2025.

Cheng Shin Rubber has 20 major tire manufacturing bases around the world. After completing the expansion of its production capacity in Indonesia in 2024, it will continue to invest nearly 300 million yuan to expand its tire production capacity in India. According to incomplete statistics, with the joint support of the 20 major tire production bases, Cheng Shin Rubber's daily production capacity is expected to exceed 150 million.

Global layout capabilities need to be continuously improved
And if Chinese tire giants want to enter the first echelon in the world, such a production capacity scale is obviously far from enough.

Even after five years of capacity optimization, the number of tire factories of the world's top three tire companies is still stable at more than 35. The number of global tire factories of the two giants Michelin and Bridgestone is even close to 50.

And Chinese tire companies, even the old and strong company Cheng Shin Rubber, have only 20 factories worldwide. Although it leads, the number is still not enough.

However, since 2012, when Sailun established a factory in Vietnam, Chinese tire rookies on the global tire stage have begun to accelerate the layout of global production capacity and move towards the goal of localization in overseas markets.

At present, Sailun Tire and Zhongce Rubber have successively expanded new production bases in North America. Linglong Tire has tried to expand production capacity in Europe before 2020. In addition, Zhongce Rubber and Sailun Tire have also opened a new production base in Southeast Asia-Indonesia. As of now, the number of Zhongce Rubber's global factories has exceeded 11.

Technical strength ranking, each showing its strength
Of course, if you want to really stand out in the global tire market, in addition to "enough" production capacity, product performance must also continue to break through-entering the high-end can allow the brand to control the market.

In 2024, Zhongce Rubber released the "Tiangong Commercial Vehicle Tire Technology System" independently developed. The system relies on the three core technologies of Tiangong Black Gold-Material Technology System, Tiangong Xuanjia-Structural Technology System, and Tiangong Art-Intelligent Manufacturing Technology System, 6-dimensional performance and 9 core technologies, comprehensively improving the four key performances of commercial vehicle tires: wear resistance, low heat generation, controllability, and load resistance. At the same time, it also brings more fuel-efficient and more comfortable driving experience to commercial vehicle transport owners.

Sailun's liquid gold tires have been tested and verified by international authoritative organizations. The rolling resistance and wet grip performance of liquid gold car tires have reached the highest international level AA. Liquid gold tires have broken the "devil's triangle" problem that has plagued the tire industry for a century, allowing tires to be safer, more energy-efficient, and more wear-resistant at the same time.

At the same time, the research and development and production of this tire also conform to the current trend of green travel demand. Liquid gold tires have achieved green and low-carbon development throughout the entire life cycle from raw material selection, production and manufacturing to product use.

It is reported that if calculated at a macro level, according to China's sales of 250 million PCR tires in 2023, if the average mileage of each tire is 120,000 kilometers, if all tires used are liquid gold tires, up to 45 billion liters of fuel can be saved, which is approximately equal to 3.18 West Lakes, and carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by 104 million tons.

Linglong Tire has launched the new Linglong Master series of tires, with Master Control, Master Quiet, and Master Enjoy as the product matrix.

The whole series is equipped with three major upgrades: Water Film Killer, Anti-Oxidant Velvet Black, and Linglong Core Customer Protection Plan. While highlighting its differentiated performance advantages for different categories, it is equipped with Linglong SEALIN self-repairing technology, LLST silent cotton technology, and DUAL-SS silent self-repairing integrated technology and other new technologies to further upgrade safety and quiet performance.

In addition, the new Linglong Master series of products are equipped with RFID chips as standard to achieve effective management and information traceability of the entire life cycle of tires, and are in a leading position in the industry. China's first-tier tire companies are continuously improving their brand value and product value with stronger product performance.

Chinese tires in the top five in the world
In the past decade, Chinese tire companies have taken 40% of the global market share, and China's first-tier tire companies account for nearly half of this share.

According to the sales volume disclosed by major tire companies in 2023, Zhongce, Sailun and Linglong Tires supply about 5% of the global tire demand. As Chinese tire companies continue to expand their global presence and product prices continue to rise, the first-tier Chinese tire companies are expected to break through into the first tier of the global top five in the next 10 years!